1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a blade type multielectrode fuse to be used mainly for automobiles which is characterized in that blowout portions and a plurality of terminals are formed integrally by punching from a long fuse material consisting of a single electrically conductive plate.
2. Description of the Related Art
A fuse element which is disclosed by U.S. Pat. No. 4023264 is conventionally known as a general fuse which is to be disposed in a fuse box for automobiles.
This fuse element is manufactured by sequentially punching with presses and cutting out from a long fuse material 12 which has a thin portion 11 of definite width formed at in a longitudinal direction at a middle portion thereof into a piece having a predetermined shape and a predetermined length, and configured as a bielectrode type fuse element which has a thin blowout portion 13 between a pair of right and left terminals as shown in FIGS. 7 and 8. In addition, a reference numeral 10 represents an insulating housing in which the fuse element is to be disposed and fixed.
Further, a fuse element disclosed by Japanese Patent Publication (KOKOKU) No. 61-14625 is known as a multielectrode type fuse element which is configured to prevent a blown fuse from influencing on other fuses by arranging a plurality of output terminals in parallel with an input terminal on a side of a power source by way of a blowout portion.
This fuse element is manufactured by punching from a long fuse metal plate material 14, and consists of a common link 16 and a plurality of fuse forming links 17, 17, . . . which are disposed on one side of a coupling link 15 so that they hang down in parallel with one another, and that they have blowout portions 18 which have sectional areas smaller than those of the other portions as shown in FIGS. 9 and 10.
The multielectrode type fuse element described above is manufactured by punching from the fuse metal plate 14 which has a definite thickness and projecting a portion 19 from the common link 16, and the links hang down in parallel with one another on one side of (under) the coupling link 15.
Though the fuse element disclosed by U.S. Pat. No. 4,023,264 can be manufactured efficiently in a large number by sequentially punching with presses from a long fuse material and cutting into a piece having a predetermined shape and a predetermined length while feeding the long fuse material 12 which has the longitudinal thin area 11 of the definite width in the middle portion thereof, this fuse element is required in a large number for a single vehicle since the fuse element is configured to control electric conduction capacity between an input terminal and output terminals.
Further, the multielectrode type fuse element disclosed by Japanese Patent Publication (KOKOKU) No. 61-14625 is limited from a viewpoint of working in its width to be pouched since the blowout portions 18 are formed by punching from the fuse metal plate 14 having the definite thickness.
Since it is required to reduce sectional areas of the blowout portion 18 dependently on electrical conduction capacities, these sectional areas can be adjusted only within a certain limited range by adjusting only a punching width from a plate-like metal which has a definite thickness (0.65 mm) required for the fuse links.
In the blade type fuses which utilize fuse links and are widely used for various kinds of vehicles, the fuse links are 0.65 mm thick and the blowout portions have an sectional area of 0.3 mm.sup.2 for 30A (amperes) or 0.1 mm.sup.2 for 1 A: these blowout portions having sizes from 0.3 mm thick by 1.0 mm wide to 0.1 mm thick by 0.1 mm wide.
Accordingly, these blade type fuse elements having the blowout portions with a small sectional area cannot be manufactured, like the multielectrode type fuse element disclosed by Japanese Patent Publication (KOKOKU) No. 61-14625, only by adjusting a punching width from the plate-like metal 0.65 mm thick.